A copy of H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act, rests on a table. The thick, wordy document still has some confused (Photo composite from John Shinkle/POLITICO and iStock).. | Composite image by POLITICO

Is health bill too complex to grasp?

Olympia Snowe, it seems safe to assume, is following the health care debate a bit more closely than the average American.

So it is saying something that the Maine senator — a key figure in health care negotiations — admits she is stumped by the task of crafting a simple explanation for legislation of mind-numbing complexity.

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“If anybody can give me an easy, 30-second solution to this multitrillion-dollar problem, be my guest,” said Snowe, a moderate Republican.

A Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, agrees. “The members don’t even understand what’s in it,” he confessed of the legislation. As for his constituents? They are “not exactly sure what this is about, and they’re not really sure whether they like it or not.”

The most far-reaching domestic legislation to move through Capitol Hill in decades has engaged the minds of many of the country’s smartest and most-informed economists and public policy engineers.

But, as the health care battle enters a critical phase — with lawmakers about to greet constituents during summer recess — the reality is that the outcome will probably be shaped less by the intelligence of advocates on any side than by the ignorance of most Americans.

It may go too far to say that Americans are too dumb to understand concepts like “bending the cost curve.” Or too preoccupied by “America’s Got Talent” to decide whether “evidence-based medicine” is a euphemism for rationing.

But all sides of the debate are facing the same essential challenge: How to boil down arguments that flummox even veteran legislators into simple appeals that will engage an easily distracted, easily flustered electorate.

The burden may rest more heavily on supporters of reform, since time — and the daily crossfire of dueling talking points and legislative showdowns — seems to be increasing public doubt about the merits of reform.

The percentage of Americans who believe they will be worse off if health care reform passes — 21 percent — has doubled since February, according to a July tracking poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, while the 39 percent who believe they will be better off has remained relatively stagnant. On Wednesday, a new National Public Radio poll found opposition to Obama’s health care reform plan nearing the 50 percent mark.

That followed a Pew Research Center poll last week that found that 63 percent of people find health reform “hard to understand,” while 34 percent think it is “easy to understand.”